Dragon Conjurer, page 22
“You’re worth it, Steff.” I wrapped my arm over her shoulders and pulled her closer to my side. “Trust me, you’re worth the risk. I couldn’t live with myself if I turned into a pussy when the going got tough. You and the rest of our team deserve better than having a Red rank who’s also a coward. I have to prove I’m worth the rank AIMM gave me, don’t I?”
“You already did,” the pink-haired fairy giggled. “Time and time again, you’ve proved your worth, and not just out in the field or against that bully. You kept your cool when it mattered, and you charged in when you were needed. I think you have all the traits of a great leader, Dylan, and I hope you’ll consider being our team captain once we calm down enough to make it official.”
“I know I’ve kind of been leading the team already, but why me?” I questioned. “You’ve been here the longest, and you’re pretty damn powerful--”
“It makes sense for the Red on our team to be our leader,” she interrupted and shrugged. “Even though you haven’t been here long, you’re the most capable member of our team. You know how to take charge, and you know how to hold back. Those are really important traits for a leader to have. I can’t imagine me taking that position away from you, Dylan. I have full confidence in you, and I know Nick and Nala will support you, too.”
“Thank you, Steff.” I looked down at her and locked my sights on her honey-colored eyes. I could get lost in her beautiful golden irises if I wasn’t careful, but then I wondered if I wanted to be careful in the first place. She was the perfect woman, and I couldn’t believe my luck when I stared into her eyes and saw the adoration she had for me.
Static crackled over our headsets, and from across the cabin, I saw Nick throw his hands up into the air.
“Fucking finally!” he shouted into our ears through the headphones. “Why do these headsets have so many fucking channels? It doesn’t make any sense.”
“What’s going on, Nick?” I asked.
“Listen, I hate to nose into your intense staring time,” he said and pointed out the window, “but you might want to take a look outside.”
“What is it?” Steffi asked as we leaned over to the window to look at what Nick was seeing.
“I can’t see anything but clouds,” I murmured and frowned. “What’s up?”
“We’re on the descent,” Nala said, “and those aren’t clouds.”
“What?” Steffi gasped as the jet broke through the thick gray layer of whatever it was, and then we realized why Nick wanted to talk to us.
The hills beneath us were blazing with red and orange flames, and the burning foliage belched out the thickest black smoke I’d ever seen. As far as I could see, there was nothing but flames and ashes and destruction.
“You’ll have to drop in!” Silva called out as the ramp lowered beneath us. “I can’t land anywhere nearby! Good luck, cadets!”
Chapter Fourteen
“Drop in?” I asked as I unfastened my seatbelt and stood on the edge of the ramp. “What does he mean, ‘drop in?’”
“It’s pretty straightforward, man,” Nick said as he got out of his seat and eased his way to the ramp. “We have to use our powers to descend safely into the forest. I’m going to absorb into the trees and zip between them before it gets too hot. See you down there!”
With a final whoop at the top of his lungs, the nymph jumped off the ramp and vanished from view.
“I’ll just ride the earth down,” Nala said as she held her hands out, and before I could even blink, a piece of upturned rock came flying into the jet. Nala hopped onto the piece of turf and gave Steffi and me a salute before she zipped out of the cabin on her dirt surfboard.
“Ours are pretty easy,” Steffi giggled as she rolled her neck and peeled the wings off her back. Then she flapped them a couple times before she looked down the ramp at the fire.
“What about me?” I asked.
“Ky has wings, right?” As if to emphasize her point, the manic pixie dream girl fluttered her dragonfly wings. “Summon him. Maybe he can carry you.”
“Fair point.” I lifted my arm at a ninety-degree angle. “Exokyzo!”
Ky flashed into the physical world and landed on the floor next to me, and now that I’d summoned him, I noticed he really was bigger than the last time I saw him. He was almost twice the size he’d been, about the size of Marmaduke on steroids. Even though he wasn’t quite big enough for me to ride on his back yet, I hoped he would be strong enough to carry me down from the plane.
“Why no guns this time?” I asked as the thought occurred to me, and I gripped Ky’s neck as the jet rocked and rattled around. “I thought we always needed them.”
“We won’t be encountering any locals!” Silva yelled from the cockpit. “Imps aren’t weak to guns, either! Just use your powers, and you’ll be fine!”
“Just hang onto Ky,” Steffi said as if it were the simplest thing in the world. “I’ll see you down there.”
“Wait!” I grabbed her arm and pressed a kiss to her lips before she could leave. “Be careful, okay?”
“Always.” She smiled at me and dashed down the ramp before she spread her dragonfly wings and flew out of the jet like a manic pixie.
“Shit, that was hot,” I muttered and looked at Ky. “Can you carry me?”
Before I knew what was happening, my dragon wrapped his taloned front feet around my upper body and flapped his wings. We lifted off the floor of the cabin, and then we zipped down the ramp and into the smoky hot atmosphere above the blazing forest.
I couldn’t believe I was flying, or rather, Ky was carrying me while he flew. My stomach flipped as the stable floor fell away from my feet, and my dinner from the night before threatened to make its second appearance.
Outside the plane, it was hot, hotter than the underside of Satan’s feet, and it was smokier than a hookah bar. The black air choked me up, and the heatwaves rising from the forest floor caused me to break a sweat along my hairline and down my spine.
“This is bad,” I coughed and blinked the burning tears out of my eyes. “See if you can find our teammates, bud. We need to get these imps under control before this fire gets even worse.”
Ky grunted and dipped below the tops of the trees in search of my friends, and as we came closer to the ground, the level of devastation became more and more apparent. Whole sections of the trees were reduced to standing monoliths of ash, which Ky toppled with just a single wingbeat, and the grass on the ground far below was nothing but kindling for the flames to eat up as they made their way across the hills.
“Fuck me, this is awful,” I whispered to myself as we got closer to the ground. “Wait, I think I see them!”
I pointed down below at a head of bright cotton-candy pink hair, and Ky descended toward the group standing with her.
Before we hit the ground, my dragon opened his front talons and dropped me from about five feet, and I had to roll through the ashy grass to save my knees from breaking.
“Dylan!” Nick shouted as I got up and made my way over to them.
“Epistrophi,” I whispered before Ky vanished from the air and reappeared on my skin in a bright light. “Hey, guys. What’s the situation?”
“We’re kind of trapped in here,” Nala wheezed as she covered her mouth with her t-shirt and coughed. “Not sure where we should start looking for these guys.”
“Well, we know they’ve been here.” I took a moment to survey the blaze around us, and even though it was hot and dangerous, I knew we’d have time to make a game plan. The flames had burnt down in our immediate vicinity, so we weren’t in the fire’s direct path.
“Right,” Nick agreed, “but where do we go from here? I just see fire all around us.”
“I can scout ahead,” Steffi piped up and flapped her wings. “I have the best chance of not being seen, and they’re imps.”
“So?” The blond nymph crossed his arms and squinted his green eyes. “What’s that got to do with anything?”
“I can communicate with them,” the fairy girl explained. “Or I can at least understand them. If I can make out their voices in the middle of all of this, then I have the best shot of getting back to you and stopping them from doing more damage.”
“Take Nick with you.” I walked up to her and placed a hand on her bare shoulder. “He can keep up with you in the trees.”
“I’ll do my best,” the blond said as he cracked his knuckles. “With everything actively burning, it’ll be hard to stay in one place long, but I’ll do my damnedest to keep up with her.”
“Good. Nala and I will try to get more of the blaze under control.” I glanced at the dark-haired beauty and shrugged. “I know Burkhard said not to worry about the flames, but I don’t want to stand here and do nothing while we’re working to locate the imps. It just doesn’t make sense to me.”
“I agree,” the dark-eyed girl said with a nod of her curly head. “We can help contain the fires as long as we don’t make it too obvious. We don’t want the authorities to wonder what happened when we leave. If they suspect anything, it would be bad news for us.”
“Exactly.” I crossed my arms and looked at our scouting crew. “Watch each other’s backs. Be careful, and head back to us as soon as you see anything.”
“Got it,” Nick said as he grinned and disappeared.
“You two be safe,” Steffi whispered as she hugged Nala and kissed me. “We won’t be gone long.”
“Good,” I replied. “Good luck, and happy hunting.”
The fairy girl smiled at me and then extended her wings and flew east, and soon, all I could see of her in the smoke and haze was the faintest trail of golden pixie dust following behind her.
“Okay, let’s do this,” Nala announced as she anchored herself into the ground and held her hands parallel to the soil beneath us. The forest floor seemed to buckle under my feet, and then a wave of loose dirt broke from the rest of the ground and doused the flames on the outside of our little ash circle.
“Impressive,” I said and bumped her shoulder with my fist. “That’ll keep it from smoldering, too.”
“Exactly.” She grinned with a perfect set of pearly white teeth before she twisted her stance by ninety degrees and repeated the tidal wave of dirt trick.
“Okay, my turn.” I took a deep breath, held my arm out, and shouted the incantation to summon Ky. “Exokyzo!”
In a flash brighter than the flames around us, Ky emerged from my arm and appeared at my side, and he blinked his deep azure eyes at me and swung his head around us to check out what was going on.
“Okay, so Steffi and Nick left to find the imps,” I said as I patted his scaly neck. “It’s our job to try to control the fire just a little. We can’t stop it all, but if you could help us get it back under control, that would be great, buddy.”
The beast in front of me bobbed his head like a nod before he spread his wings and shot twenty feet over my head.
“We still have the cover of night, but don’t fly too high!” I waved my hands over my head as the dragon flew around the small circle and started blasting flames with his frosty breath. “Don’t go too far! We’ll need you in the fight against the imps later.”
“Your dragon is so cool,” Nala commented as she finished turning in her circle and moved toward the flames. “I wish I had a power like that.”
“Oh, come on,” I scoffed and started tossing handfuls of dirt onto the small number of spots of grass Nala missed. “You can control the earth with your mind. That’s pretty fucking badass.”
“Thanks, but I feel like it’s not that helpful in this situation.” She stomped her foot into the ground and sent a shockwave of loose soil into a plume of fire.
“What?” I wiped my hands on my pants and watched her work. “You’re doing more than I am right now. Dirt’s actually really helpful. It won’t be so obvious if the fire marshals come out here and try to find the cause of the fire. You’re doing great, Nala. Just keep it up.”
“Thanks, Dylan. I’m looking forward to that date when we finally get a break from these missions.” She turned back to what she was doing, but before she did I could’ve sworn I saw her start to blush.
“So, uh, me and Steff being together doesn’t… bother you?” I moved my arm through the air and signaled Ky to blast some dying flames with his icy powers. “I’m not saying it should or shouldn’t bother you. You just… ahh… seem okay with it. I just want to know, you know?”
“It doesn’t bother me,” she grunted as she brought a massive wave of damp earth onto a blaze. “I still want to have a meal with you and get to know you better. I think you are hot, and it’s obvious you feel the same about me from the way you look at me.”
“Uhh… true…” I chuckled.
Fuck, this was so cool. Two girls were into me, and it seemed they didn’t mind sharing me.
But still. Who could really understand women? I’d have to proceed carefully.
I turned my face up to the sky to watch for Ky as he circled around and jetted the fire with his crystallized frost breath. The scaly beast flying above us worked like a machine to extinguish any flames before they got too close to us, and I couldn’t help but smile at the thought of this dragon being mine.
He was an amazing power, but better yet, he was my amazing power.
“Dylan!” Nick’s voice shouted from behind me, and I turned around in time to see the nymph appear out of thin air. Even though he’d probably never left the trees, I could see soot in his blond hair and on his pale arms.
“Did you find the imps?” I asked as I looked around and waited to see our other teammate coming back, but she didn’t appear. “Where’s Steffi?”
“She’s tangled up with them.” The nymph pointed up to Ky. “Get your dragon to clear us a path, and I’ll take you to her. We have to hurry. There are at least a dozen of them.”
“Let’s go!” I swept my arm over my head and motioned for Nala and Ky to follow us as we headed back the way Steffi and Nick had left. “Ky, make a hole!”
My dragon grunted and blasted a stream of steady frost breath into the fire blocking our way, and the attack was so cold, we were able to run across the ground as though it hadn’t been on fire just moments before.
“How was she doing when you left her?” I asked Nick as the three of us ran down the path Ky had cleared. “Was she managing?”
“Yeah, she was fine,” Nick panted and dodged some underbrush. “She was staying just out of their reach, but it doesn’t mean we shouldn’t hurry.”
“I don’t want to leave her alone,” Nala said behind us as she grunted, and the ground beneath us washed over some sparks Ky had missed. “Steffi’s a badass and all, but she could still need our help. Let’s go!”
“Agreed.” I hopped over an ashy branch and motioned for my dragon to blast another mouthful of ice at the trail ahead. “Come on, buddy!”
Ky roared with the force of twenty lions, and the sound echoed through the hillside. Then he breathed another sheet of ice over the fire and cleared a path for us.
If we weren’t in such a hurry, I’d be worried about someone hearing the roar, but I couldn’t let myself care too much since we needed to get to Steffi before it was too late.
Then we broke into a blazing clearing where fireballs and fairy magic were flying from every direction. Twelve little red imps danced along the ashy ground and squealed while they belched flaming balls out of their mouths, and they looked like little devils, complete with the horns and pointy tails. They were nothing like the imp I saw in the alleyway just a few days ago, though, since they were about the size of a human child but twice as pudgy.
The little alien creatures were shooting their attacks at my fairy girl, who flew and bobbed above their heads with practiced ease. Her magic was working overtime, and she shot ball after ball of pixie dust down onto the laughing devils. Her rosy hair was plastered and curled on her forehead with sweat, and her perfectly pink lips were twisted up into a snarl.
“Steff!” I shouted as Ky growled and zipped over my head. “We’ve got your back!”
“Dylan!” she cried out and flew over to where I was standing. Then she landed next to me and hugged me while the others dashed into the battle.
“Nick came and got me as soon as he could,” I said as I rubbed her back gently. “You okay?”
“I’m fine, thanks,” she replied and held me a little tighter. “Thank you for coming so quickly. I don’t know what I would’ve done if you hadn’t shown up.”
“I’m here now, so let’s kick some imp ass.” I balled my hands into fists and gave her a wicked grin.
“Yes, let’s.” She returned my smile with a sharp one of her own, and her golden eyes flashed with amber ferocity. “We’ve got this.”
“Exactly.” I stood on the edge of the battlefield while she leapt into the air to join Ky in his circle overhead.
Nala used her earth bending powers to knock the imps off their balance, and when they turned their attention to her, Nick came out of a nearby burning tree and punched the closest devil in the face.
“Good work, team!” I shouted as Nala and Nick continued to work together as a distraction. “Steff, go for their feet!”
“Got it!” the fairy girl yelled back and blasted golden balls of fairy dust at the imps’ big, gnarly feet.
The imps danced around like they were avoiding Legos, and that was the perfect opportunity for Ky to swoop in and blast one with ice until it froze to the ground.
“One down!” I shouted as I pumped my fist up into the air. “That’s it, team! We can do this! Just need to keep it up until they’re all down!”
At the moment, I didn’t think anything about me being on the edge of the battlefield because I knew my team understood why I had to be on the edge. It wasn’t because I was a coward or anything. I wished I had a cool power to show off in battle, but right now I was just happy to be commanding a fucking dragon in the middle of the fight.
